The Horror Megapack_ 25 Classic and Modern Horror Stories ( PDFDrive )

“For Visions come from a region of the consciousness where observation and
experiment are out of the question,” pursued the other with enthusiasm, not
noticing the interruption, “and, while they should be checked by reason
afterwards, they should not be laughed at or ignored. All inspiration, I hold, is of
the nature of interior Vision, and all our best knowledge has come—such is my
confirmed belief—as a sudden revelation to the brain prepared to receive it—”
“Prepared by hard work first, by concentration, by the closest possible study of
ordinary phenomena,” Dr. Laidlaw allowed himself to observe.
“Perhaps,” sighed the other; “but by a process, none the less, of spiritual
illumination. The best match in the world will not light a candle unless the wick
be first suitably prepared.”
It was Laidlaw’s turn to sigh. He knew so well the impossibility of arguing
with his chief when he was in the regions of the mystic, but at the same time the
respect he felt for his tremendous attainments was so sincere that he always
listened with attention and deference, wondering how far the great man would
go and to what end this curious combination of logic and “illumination” would
eventually lead him.
“Only last night,” continued the elder man, a sort of light coming into his
rugged features, “the vision came to me again—the one that has haunted me at
intervals ever since my youth, and that will not be denied.”
Dr. Laidlaw fidgeted in his chair.
“About the Tablets of the Gods, you mean—and that they lie somewhere
hidden in the sands,” he said patiently. A sudden gleam of interest came into his
face as he turned to catch the professor’s reply.
“And that I am to be the one to find them, to decipher them, and to give the
great knowledge to the world—”
“Who will not believe,” laughed Laidlaw shortly, yet interested in spite of his
thinly-veiled contempt.
“Because even the keenest minds, in the right sense of the word, are hopelessly
—unscientific,” replied the other gently, his face positively aglow with the
memory of his vision. “Yet what is more likely,” he continued after a moment’s
pause, peering into space with rapt eyes that saw things too wonderful for exact
language to describe, “than that there should have been given to man in the first
ages of the world some record of the purpose and problem that had been set him
to solve? In a word,” he cried, fixing his shining eyes upon the face of his
perplexed assistant, “that God’s messengers in the far-off ages should have given
to His creatures some full statement of the secret of the world, of the secret of